Life Lessons from the HIgh Peaks

I had the opportunity to write a little blip in our ward newsletter.

I chose to write about a quote from President Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk on patience.

There is something about physical exertion that builds character and teaches you important principles that you wouldn’t typically recognize.

For instance, I recently went on my first backpacking trip to the Adirondacks in upstate NY. This trip taught me plenty. I learned that the trail can be bumpy and arduous. The journey can be tedious. And I also learned there are a few things you can’t predict, such as wet, muddy weather, and old, relentless injuries. Don’t get me wrong, I had a pleasant time, but I couldn’t help but draw comparisons from my own life and path.

Life can be hard, monotonous, and sometimes downright sticky. Which led me to reflect on one particular principle: Patience.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf’s said, “Patience is not passive resignation, nor is it failing to act because of our fears. Patience means active waiting and enduring. It means staying with something and doing all that we can---working, hoping, and exercising faith; bearing hardship with fortitude, even when the desires of our hearts are delayed.”

Patience is not sitting on a rock on my pathway to righteousness, simply waiting for the highway of all my desires (even my righteous and worthy desires) to be built. I must stand up, strap on my boots and get to work! I need to move forward, putting one foot in front of the other, hoping that my hard work will bring me to my desired destination. Nor is it about hiking a smooth surface to eternal life. Patience is also about crossing bridges into the unknown or scrambling over the boulders of my fears and insecurities.

When we add the power of prayer and the purifying Atonement, we can face the difficulties of life with confidence. And the Lord will bless us, as we are patient.

“I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear and shall trust in the Lord.”

(Psalms 40:1-3)